ahh the elusive bedtime, bedtime is 8:00 but when it is daylight out side it is hard to believe it is bedtime and not playtime.

potatoes, potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes. Over 400 potatoe hills, I wonder how many potatoes that could actually mutliply out to be and just how many sacks of potatoes we will need to keep all those potatoes. Anyone who comes to visit this year will be hilling potatoes, checking potatoes, weeding potatoes, pulling potatoes, picking potatoes and maybe even eating some of them.

truly refreshing to be in the city again yesterday, to see the expanse of plants available in the greenhouse, to eat at a more than just burgers and fries restaurant with real service and clean tables. Rural Saskatchewan is full of boundless tourism opportunities, unfortunately full of business owners who refuse to believe that the behaviour of their staff and the first impression of the facility have any relation to the success of their business. Often business in rural saskatchewan behaves as though customers are their right and not a result of good service or food as the case may be. A pet peeve of mine that we would continue to promote ouselves as an incredible tourism experience and not place the highest importance on the return of thoses tourists after we have managed to lure them in the first time. Clean tables are nice, waitresses who are interested in their customers are nice, clean cultery and cups are good, food that looks appealing rather than questionable is also good. Bright inviting atmosphere should be a given. Perhaps rather than a five star rating system a new system based on levels of yuckiness would be more appropriate. I can see it now, pulling up to a restuarant in rural saskatchewan, checking out the front window or door for the yuckiness level sticker. perhaps the owner would get the point.

Mother's day, an apple tree, some paper roses and a decorated jar(pencil holder). Will have to check out the green house in saskatoon to find the apple tree. As there were none left in nipawin.

Life is wasted if not lived as an adventure. Indeed, the adventure into farming, herbs and spices, organics, ethical wildcrafting, herbology and natural health food and supplements, certainly will be an adventure.

Stopped at the greenhouse on the way home today, hard to make decisions in the green house, fortunately I only had $15.00 cash to spend. I now own a martha washington geranium, a double begonia and some oregano. The fuschias, double impatiens and other flowers were very appealing and the choices were tough, but I perserviered and only spent $11.00 of my original $15.00.

Well we finally took the plunge, the stinging nettle plunge that is . Cooked stinging nettle looks some what like spinach, tastes somewhat like spinach but not really, sort of hard to discribe actually. Next time we will have to try the dandelions. One word of advice, next time I pick stining nettles I will remember to where gloves. The ends of two of my fingers have a couple of pricky reminders of our supper.

We are cooking again today, when the weather is bad, what can one do but cook? Today we are making chicken and vegtable pillows, Thai coconut rice and a rainbow veggie/fruit platter.

Lest the world of technology become so simple it becomes confusing. Case in point a simple usb connection, easy to use, easy to spot, yet when the wrong usb cord is unknowingly connected to the computer the device to which the output is intended refuses to respond, yet who could know, who could tell (without four hours of frustration) that a simple change in cords connected to the usb port would solve the problem. aaargh

If you can't beat em, then eat em. Dandelion Salad. Look for small tender dandelions in early spring before they bloom. If the yellow flowers are open, the greesn will havea bitter taste. Dig up the whole plant and remove it in one piece. Shake of excess dirt. Hold onto the root and dunk the plant up and down in a bucket of clean water many times. Clean thoroughly or the greens will taste gritty. Pull of the leaves and save them. Throw away the root and the flower bud. Boil the leaves until tender in a small amount of salted water. If the leaves taste bitter , change the water and boil them again. drain off the water and serve the greens hot with butter and salt or add a little vinegar and a few bacon bits.

Anyone up for a tincture? Perhaps a red clover blossom tincture for acne, or a dandelion tincture for low energy, a an ecchinaccea tincture to strengthen immune system, have a problem, we got a tincture.

snow, snow, the weather man is actually calling for snow on wed and thursday, this week. I am not interested in snow.

the people of canada will have their say, hmmm really. would that be the people in eastern canada or western canada or canada as a whole. during most elections the decision of power is made before the votes are counted in Manitoba. aaaah the sponsorship scandal.

So much for keeping the bugs out. Crystal accidently pushed the lock on the bathroom door, left the room and then shut the door. Normally that wouldnt be a problem, but some has put something other than a bathroom door lock on this door and we apparently have no key. Consequently the screen on the bathroom window has to be cut off in order to allow some skinny person to crawl into the bathroom from outside. sooo, we shall see how this works.

Thanks to carmen, we had an interesting and enjoyable meal this evening. roasted garlic with toasted pine nuts and goat cheese, stuffed portebello mushrooms with artichoke hearts baked in the oven, roast beef (my recipe) and baked potatoes (my recipe) ceasar salad. mmmm.

Anyone's roses blooming yet? Strawberry Rose Cooler: 1 pint strawberries, 1/2 cup fresh petals, 2 cups vanilla ice cream, 2 qts milk, 1/2 cup sugar, Place the strawberries, sugar, and rose petals in a blender; blend approximately 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Add ice cream and remaining milk, 1 cup at a time until mixture is well blended. Recipe can easily be cut in half.

so you think I am crazy, ha! I think the people who go to the health food store and pay $8.98 for 1 cup of dried dandelion tea leaves are crazy. But if they want to be crazy I can supply them with the dried dandelion leaves and they can pay me. By the way, I bought some of that tea, truly disgusting taste and not even only in Canada eh

soooo, who is up for some cream of dandelion flower soup, or deep fried dandelion flowers, with fiddlehead salad and pansies. or how about some candied flowers with herbal ice tea and johnny jump up ice cubes? How about old fashioned pancakes with purple pansy pancake syrup and dandelion root coffee or stinging nettle tea, perhaps just cooking the stinging nettle and serving it as a side dish with butter mmmm, yummy!

I can already smell the basil, thyme, majoram, lavender and dill and the greenhouse isnt even set up yet. I cant wait to try my own personal strawberry leaf herb tea and french vanilla ice cream with strawberry and herb vinergar dressing.

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, I am on my way downstairs to open my new 10" sliding compound mitre saw. hmmmm something wrong with this picture, I am sure that my new greenhouse which i will pick up tommorrow will be more fun.

why is it that whenever I paint, there is more on me then on the wall.

A beautiful day today, no worries about snow on the drive home, that is a nice change, hoo ray spring must be on its way.

ok, so just exactly what's up anyway? First I win a new snowboard, then I break my toe, and it wasn't even on the darn snowboard. Is somebody trying to tell me something? Plans to go skiing on saturday, I will probably break my leg!

ooh, ouch, ayee, ow ow ow, eeee, acch ouch, Crystal broke my toe for me this morning. She dropped the marble rolling pin on it sharp edge first. Oh well, at least Arianna is cooking breakfast now.

Slowly, slowly the house is getting a face lift, the kitchen has been painted, we now have the new lino for the kitchen, hallway and new carpet for downstairs, also the marble flooring for in the bathroom, a new light fixture for the bath and kitchen. Hopefully we will have it in sometine next week or this weekend.

Life is full of ironies. Just when we were talking about how much fun skiing is and how hard it is to snowboard, I win a $300.00 snowboard. How cool is that!!

In laws are rediculous.

Easter is just around the corner, the Easter Bunny hippity hopping to our house or so Crystal will think. Of course the company we will have for easter will be exciting as well. After such a long absence it will be so nice to see Carmen and Dan again and after all we have yet to see Hannah in real life. Well, won't it be a change when they finally find gainful employment in beautiful less stressed Saskatchewan, where we can visit back and forth every weekend and play with the baby.

Well, the dog may have learned something, that cars are bigger than he is. The dog was run over by a car a couple of days ago, fortunately for him, he is small enough to be run over and roll out the other side. At least he isn't limping any more, in fact he was quite happy with his steak bone earlier today.

Time to set up the fish tank, much easier to look after then the dog, I think.

Well, we cleaned up and organized the office today. Now it is ready for work and sleep, as it is also the extra bedroom. Too bad there are ten more rooms to be organized and cleaned including the kitchen and living room which seem be cyclical in the need for cleaning. First you clean, then it is messy, then you clean, then it is messy, aachh

nasty cold bug, first arianna, then crystal and now me. drip, drip, drip, drip my nose that is. Time for the over the counter medication trip.

The tooth fairy is going to pay a visit tonight, Crystal's tooth is under her pillow waiting for the tooth fairy. No school next week, hmmm I wonder how much work I will get done.

Well, the proposal is off to SPMC, in the hands of the post office. We shall see what the results will be. The more work the better, the more money the better, the more people working for us the better, etc.

Another proposal done, two more to go.

Completely amazing I say, the fact that is, that my day was quite rewarding. I represented my business at the local tech school career fair. Gathered a good number of resumes, discussed a good number of options with enthusiastic youth, who will soon graduate with a multitutde of skills. Considering the way my day started, the first clue was rushing thru the getting ready for the day part of the morning because the truck was out of gas and gerald needed a ride to work. I quickly threw on some pantyhose, which promptly became stuck to the velcro on my jacket in the truck on the way to the highway depot. Needless to say velcro and panty hose do not mix well together. Of course being in a time crunch I was not able to return home to change panty hose. Fortuanetly for me my skirt was longer than the run on the pantyhose, barely. The pantyhose situation only gets worse from here. The drive in the truck of course, was uneventful as sitting in one position for an hour and half does not further promote runs or crazy things to happen to pantyhose. Some time later though after arriving and checking in at the career fair, I realized the my pantyhose was creeping slowly but surely down past my waist and were slipping lower on my buttocks then one would believe to be comfortable or correct. Much to my dismay I discovered that the pantyhose I had thrown on earlier were devoid of appropriate elasticity at the top of the pantyhose to maintain correct positioning. For the remainder of the day, I was forced to pinch my skirt from time to time to ensure my pantyhose did not simply decide to fall down to my ankles at a moments notice. Adding a bit of uncertainty to the whole career fair, but still the day was truly successful while remaining a challenge as well. The aforementioned pantyhose are well on their way to the local disposal and shall never reside in my abode again.

dumped on would be the term for the weather pixie, if I had one that is. I shovelled more snow today then I have all winter and I suspect tommorrow will require a re-shovel.

aHa, I won, I won a game of spider solitaire on hard. Of course I should have been finishing the proposal for hug a tree, but I won, how cool is that.

Wow, I feel like a real tech pro, I added the spam poison link and picture to the blog. We are getting new furniture some time this weekend, at some point when it actually quits snowing that is. and new furniture to us is someone else's used stuff in good condition. We will have two new loveseats, a new table and chairs, a new double bedroom suite and some extra dressers, all for $350.00. Now when company comes to my house we will have two double beds that can be absconded from Crystal and Arianna for the company. Private rooms and all.

Every day should be like today, weather was great, the job was hectic, but the weather made it all ok.

There I have added Carmen and Dan's blog to my list. Now that I have high speed lite (at least) life on the net is much easier and faster.

well, it's been about 6 or 7 years since i've driven a snowmobile. today was a good day for that and fun too, driving a newer snowmobile. even crystal was driving and now she still wants to drive again and again. She was even a bigger speed demon than carmen when carmen was six.

Ah for the lazy daisy days of summer. A brief but very wet and icy repreive from the cold weather has disapeared mysteriously only to return us to the bitter cold of -30. Perhaps my airconditioning will break down this summer and I will wish for the cold weather of today to stop the beads of sweat from rolling off my forhead. ha ha ha ha not.

Bean soup can be an interesting meal, later in the day. Dont invite friends over if you plan on serving bean soup. Make sure the dog is sleeping on the carpet nearby, so you can blame the strange smell on the sleeping dog. Just for extra fun serve the left overs the next day and have two days of enjoyment.

Finally a reprieve from the -51 degree weather. Plus two tomorrow they say, hopefully without freezing rain. It will certainly feel like a good day for ice fishing. Too bad we have to work Monady.

The ability to use the phone and the internet at the same time is certainly a bonus. Although technology seems to come with its own set of bugs these days. My phone for instance, the red message light continues to blink, yet there are no messages. When someone uses my toll free fax number they are unsuccessful at transmitting a fax, yet when people use the toll free phone line, they receive a fax signal. One would come to the conclusion that there was a problem with programming at Sasktel, alas, not so. When I phone the above mentioned numbers (from my cell phone) the fax toll free phone line works fine and the toll free phone line functions as it is supposed to as well. hmmmmm perplexing indeed.

well, I was able to successfully hook up my high speed lite all by myself. I now have high speed lite. much nicer than dial up. Of course I must remember now to run the virus checker more often but other than that whoopie.

Well the t4's are all done for this year. Believe it or not we actually had 20 employees as of august 16, 2004 thru to Dec 31. Total gross wages for that time period $46,000.00 Hopefully we can continue that way into 2005.

This is a rant about a paritcular product. I cannot come up with enough negative phrasing to adequately describe how I truly feel towards this particular piece of machinery. Do Not Purchase this item under any circumstances. In fact if someone tries to give this product to you tell them gently to stick it where the sun doesn't often reach. The product you ask, waiting with baited breath, what product could cause such a distaste in ones mouth as this. What product indeed. An HP 5510 All In One Printer, copier, fax, scanner. That is the true culprit, a machine manufactured to increase stress levels of it's owners (defintaley meets goal on that point) Let me just repeat that product, I wouldnt want any one to be mistaken HP 5510 all in one printer, scanner, fax, copier. This is the worst product of this category that I have ever used. This printer is capable of printing one excellent copy of anything, try to print a second copy, or a third copy or a forth copy,,,ha ha ha.. The machine disintegrates like an expired Mission Impossible message. Completly Useless, I Say!!!! Boycott Boycott Boycott HP HP HP HP HP 5510

Well, we couldn't have picked a colder day to drive one and half hours to hand out two hundred business cards. Our bad purchase for the day purchased at Walmart a comfort cushion with a small almost minute system of beads inside, which apparently are toxic, so must be kept away from small children, and used as a comfort cushion only and not even used to sleep with. my advise Dont Buy This Product.

cold, cold and more cold, brrrrr.

The car seems to run great, that is nice to know. This will be a great on gas car particularly in the summer months. If the summer months ever get here that is.

Finally found a replacement vehicle for the van that was written off by SGI. We bought a 1994 Mazda Protege for $3,500.00. Should be good on gas.

hmmm. I really must take that christmas tree down.

Well, it is my goal within the next two days to pick up the self install high speed internet connection kit. We shall see just what type of challenge that can provide.

Nasty, the weather that is. Minus thirty seven celcius and falling. ooh for those summer days, at least one positive, the days are getting longer albeit colder, at least for the time being.

Well, a new year. Many new occurrences happend last year, a new baby, a new marriage, a new house in PA, new self employment opportunities, new job for Dan, (so by the way, how's that going?) I wonder how this year will top all that from last year. Any predictions. Well, I've come up with another new idea. How does Pandora's Box Creative Communications and Inivative Marketing Ideas,, sound?? or more simply just Pandora's Box Communications? This particular company would provide local broadcast fax including design if required and publish and distribute a six page newsletter "The GrassRoots" to voluntary sector agencies in Saskatchewan. A newsletter complete with a new list of funding agencies and their requirements published quarterly.

It has been such a long time since I have blogged, I almost feel lost, without a thought with which to post or initiate a post. This is the week after Christmas, the week when the decorations will be put away and the tree will be dismantled. This will be the second year that we have had an artificial tree, a fact that I am still not quite used to. The lack of a nasty needle mess to clean up, the dilemma of trying to find a place to discard the used tree, the realization that the water from the tree was spilled and leaked onto the floor creating a stained puddle to wash away, the dropping of needles throughout the entire house as the tree is dragged from one room to the next until arriving at the front door exit to the outside, instead, we will simply remove the decorations, dimantle the tree, store the tree and wait for next year. ho hum how boring.

Hmmmm. The computer was slow, so I clicked again, and again, soooo does that mean I will be posting to blogger three times concurrently or simultaneously?? Certainly has been an ion of time since the last blog, a new month ago to be precise. The question must then be posed is it due to, being busy, tired, lazy, annoyed (with dial up internet) or just simply not paying attention to the lapse of time from one blog to the next. Perhaps the demands of the season or the upcoming wedding, certainly not overburdened with work as I do have some free time now. a wee bit anyway.

nasty! The tv lied they said that the Amazing Race was on at 9:00 oclock it is now 8:00 oclock and the Amazing Race is on. I was planning on working from 8 until 9, can't now, have to watch the Amazing Race, darn. Just another one of those little quirky things that makes us here in Saskatchewan so special, having all of our tv shows come on at the wrong time.

nasty! The tv lied they said that the Amazing Race was on at 9:00 oclock it is now 8:00 oclock and the Amazing Race is on. I was planning on working from 8 until 9, can't now, have to watch the Amazing Race, darn. Just another one of those little quirky things that makes us here in Saskatchewan so special, having all of our tv shows come on at the wrong time.

One more Christmas present bought today. Something for Angela. I think I need to make a list for some reason Christmas is coming up very fast for me this year. This is the weekend for the Christmas tree to be put up. For the second year in a row we are having an artificial tree, that still just doesn't seem right. A real tree is so much more Christmassy sort of like chestnuts roasting on an open fire, although who has an open fire these days and where are the chestnuts?

I put off buying a refilled ink cartridge for months, as I believed the price was probably too good to be true. It is. The black ink refilled cartridge I was cajoled into purchasing (after all why pay 49 dollars when you could pay 29) ran out of ink after less than 75 pages of printing. grrrr. and I didnt have a more expensive refill on hand to replace it with. Annoying!! Consequently I will not under any circumstances purchase another refilled ink cartridge, especially from Staples.

The sweet smell, swirl, tingle to the taste buds of a glass of red wine. This particular wine bottled in 2001 in a vineyard in Austria. Yet I think I prefer the wine bottled in the Okanagan Valley. Perhaps a bit of a warning on this particular bottle from Austria as to the 14% alcohol content ..hic.. would have been appropriate.

aah the satisfying feeling of having completed a successful event. Much like the feeling brought on by a great performance by an invidual in the arts. Now onward and forward on to the next adventure.

Well the conference is only a few days away, all the hard work and organizing will be over after Friday. It sort of feels like christmas where there is anticipation and then it is all over. Oh well, at least it has been a good learning experience and one just never knows what could come of it.

Conference committee meeting tommorrow, we shall see how things go. Decisions, decisions decisions, what to eat, where to sit, how to faciliate that, this and the other thing, such a complicated affair. I will enjoy the conference itself though, when it does get here. Hopefully nothing to serious will go wrong.

ok, the shower was fun, the trip to saskatoon was good and as always the food was soooo much better than in Nipawin. The whole working out of an office out of your own home is alright too. I realized that this afternoon when I got to work at my desk without any socks and shoes on, try that in a business suit.

whew found my usb cord for my printer, thought I had lost it again, in yet another move. a year ago when I moved I lost my usb cord, because I couldn't remember where I packed it, never did show up. This time I remember wrapping it up, putting in a place where I would never forget and promptly forgetting once I was moved and needing my usb cord. Last time I had to buy a new one, this time that wasnt an option so thank goodness we found the cord. It was packed in Arianna's duffle bag. Halloween was as hallowed as ever, we had about twenty five halloweeners and 123 chocolate bars later not to mention the ones the kids came home with. Next year I'm buying something that is good, like carrots, ha ha ha .

that strange little tickle in my ear is back, and no it is not someone elses romantic sweet whisperings in my ear, last time it turned out to be a nasty little infection that requried penicillin, perhaps if I over load on vit c and echinaccea I will be fine. Except oh joys of moving the good stuff is packed somewhere. oh where oh where could that be??

bought a house today, built in 1977, 918 sq ft bilevel with 1 1/2 car garage for $72,000.00. I sure do like Saskatchewan

An interesting dilema the undue button on Spider Solataire, cheating or learning from ones mistakes. hmmm (as you may have noticed I am deeply encroached in writing grants and proposals)

A new and interesting non profit org has found my little consulting company, and is looking for some organizational help and sourcing for funds. The Search and Rescue Associaiton is made up of trained, managed and well organized volunteers. With relatively little financial support. interesting, they work hard, save people's lives when possible yet are paid nothing. Oh and a professional hockey player works hard, saves peoples lives oops not and gets paid how much???!! It always seems to me that in the grand scheme of things our priorities are all wrong.

The seven wonders of Saskatchewan, oh did anyone mention three feet of snow in October!!!! moving, moving, moving, we are on the move again. But I am soooo busy with my own work, how to fit in a move, hmmmm. Oh well what needs to be done, shall be done.

what strange malady has infected my ears and throat, hangs on like the aliens in alien, pains me every time I swallow much akin to the pain one would feel if scratchy sand paper was rubbed down the inside of ones esophagus, lasting now for over four days, one must suppose at some point that the echanaccea and vitamin c are not working as usual in harmony and perhaps need either assistance from the penicillin family or a bottle brandy.

It would appear that no one in this group is particularly faithful to blogging these days. My personal space has been somewhat positive lately, I've been looking for a house with a suite so that I can live and work for free while someone else's money makes the mortgage payments. Apparently I may be able to go ahead with this, as CMHC seems to be more comfortable with my credit rating this time around, perhaps the difference from a 600 a month payment to a 380 a month payment has something to do with it. Arianna had a good day to day, or at least she didn't get beat up and she didnt have to phone me and make me rush home from work to give her and crystal a ride to school because crystal wouldnt listen to arianna. In reality all crystal needed was to go to the bathroom, then she went to school quite fine. Now that it is dark outside so much earlier, it is so much easier to convince Crystal that it is bedtime, low and behold in bed and asleep by 8 rather than 9.

caffeine addiction you say, I would certainly have to agree, symptoms including headache upon withdrawel, irritablity?? how about serious mental impairment leading to complete insanity. This from one who sometime waits in a Tim Horton's line up for the drive thru window behind 15 cars which cross at least one intersection and a curve. I wonder just how much caffeine is really in an extra large double double!!

hmmm, time for bed

Well, ok one proposal is off to spmc, the ywca research proposal is about 3/4 way done anddue by wed, the child care 2003 oultine and working paper of solutions tothe government is just starting and for the next three days I will be working from 4 to 6 on the extra accountng job I have. yuckkk, even 25 dollars an hour isnt enough to get excited about that.

Some television shows just should not be aired. CSI New York went a bit overboard to day, the premiere show was outlandish and disgusting. One has to wonder what goes on in the mind of the individual who wrote that??

Press conference tomorrow, In motion Saskatchewan, a nice way to say get your fa** As** of the couch and get physcially active. We are in the press conference because workplaces is one of the targets of this campaign. Apparently people who are at work are in a position to be bombarded with messages "a captive audience" I believe was the quote. Sounds a bit like the old participaction campaign of fifteen years ago. I suppose time will tell how effective it is.

Must be time to do the own company thing and manage that rather than someone else's business. THe possibilities these days seem abundant.

Value Village has made it to our city, yay. The grand opening was on thursday last week and I have had two major shopping trips there already. Halloween stuff and clothes for the kids and Gerald. I like Value Village.

I feel for the people who work in retail and work all day long until 6:oo pm. Normally I am done at 4 but the last few days i have had to work until 6, very annoying to say the least. 4 is much nicer at least there is some day left to do something with. Remind me to never work in retail

Well, I have been working extra hours, extra days, extra minutes, extra , extra extra, hmmmm hopefully the money will be extra good.

mmm, I can smell the roasting stuffed chicken in the oven. The smell is making me soooo hungry. Much different from yesterday when I was volunteered by my employer to sit on a hole in one at a golf tournament which could have appropriately been called a snow tournament. Brrrr. We bought Crystal new winter boots and a new winter coat today, something I usually manage to put off until late October.

Hmmm, seemed as though it was a long time since I have blogged, aha, then I remembered that I had attempted to blog yesterday, only to be foiled by my computer. Meet the teacher night tonight. We are registered in a "community school" this year. What that means for meet the teacher night is free food for parents and kis. Hot dogs and macaroni salad, just a way to increase the attendance by tempting parents with food. Apparently there are more programs, sports and recreation opportunities in a "community school" as well. School fees are also signifigantly less, hooray.

It has been sooo cold lately, what is up with that. Can't we have just a little bit more of summer.

two days of school down for crystal. hopefully she will go to bed earlier tonight so she is not so tired in the morning. It is very hard to get her to get up and go to school, good thing she doesnt have to catch a bus at 7:00 am she would never make it. I paid my business license in the city today, now I can actually advertise without getting into trouble with the local municipality. Two more clients for Gerald.

Well, an interesting weekend INDEED. First of all there is the crazy relatives from Geralds side of the family who come to visit. His mother drives me crazy aaarg . Of course the house is too small for all of this company so we must make do. Jackie and Stan and the baby sleep on the living room floor, only to discover lo and behold in the morning there are carpet beetles crawling on them. Well, needless to say the carpet managed to find it's way to a new home outside of the house. I suppose that is what one can expect when one rents a house built back in the 40's. But all was not lost as the hard wood under the carpet is in quite good condition and actually enhances the room, not to mention the lack of a somewhat disgusting smell which use to permeate the room when you first came in the house. That appears to be gone as well. First day of school today for crystal and arianna, arianna is excited because she gets snacks in this school and crystal likes that fact that one of her friends from day care is in her grade. Hopefully this will be a good school year for us.

hump day to day, early morning meeting tommorrow, so technically I could leave early from work and since I don't work on Fri, I could have a nice long weekend, ah if it were only so. In reality, I will probably be too busy to leave work early tommorrow and on friday, while I may not be working at my day job, I have a meeting with the YWCA in the morning to discuss writing a research project and then I have a meetin with the Community Development Society of Saskatchewan to go over the contract for organizing their conference in November. No rest for the wicked they say.

Obedience class for puppies, how about obedience class for children.

It seems that the selling of school supplies has become as excessive as the selling of items for Christmas. $230.00 so far spent on school supplies and we are not done, nor have we yet paid the registration fee for school. Walmart was beond craziness today when we went shopping. The dog is very interesting he knows he is not allowed to chew on crystal's shoes, consequently he is laying on it just ever so slightly to the left of his lower lip, pretending to be sleepng. Then when no one is looking he will chew on it. hmmm.

Well so far Canada's medal performances have been some what lacking. Have we lost our competitive edge, do we not put enough money into sport, do we not want to win bad enough? What do you suppose could be the explanation for our poor showing.

brrrr, looks like summer, feels like winter.

LIfe is not worth living unless it is lived as an adventure, I am sure that my good friend who is in her early fifties would agree, particularly after spending the week on holidays on an acreage with her new friend, skinny dipping in the pond, running naked thru the rain, riding foolishly on the back of a quad, enjoying the view from the veranda and having chocolate coverd cherries served as a surprise. Perhaps the quote would be better if it went: Life is not worth living unless it is lived with a romantic fool who surprises you with chocolate covered cherries from the local general store.

time does fly when one is on holidays. Well the next few months will be busy, a conference in November to organize, three grants to write for the park, a number of events at work and a surprise job for thestaffing business. I wonder what else is about to happen.

The past few days at Little Bear Lake were very nice, the weather was crap of course except for to day which typically was the day that everyone left. I hear the weather is going to be good for this weekend hot and sunny. I would certainly ahve liked to experience that weather when everyone wasvisiting me at the lake rather than this coming wekkend, but I guess those are the breaks as they say. It was nice to have all the girls together except for arianna, I do enjoy that time always seems somewhat less stressful when it is just the girls. Even if only for a few days. Next time Carmen will have to bring thebaby, so that will be different. We did get to pick quite a few berries, and Carmen showed everyone how good she was with lighting the fire with wet wood.

Oh My it is past midnight and here I am working away diligently on my consulting business. But I think it is time to call it quits or I will hate myself in the morning. Gee and all for $2500.00.

well, it is the dentist blahs again. Thank God for Advil. The last appointment from the tooth fairy and now all is well at least for a year or two. Of course someday that last vicious wisdom tooth hiding at the very back of my jaw under the last tooth, will show it ugly head and I will require major dental work. hmmm, can't wait for that day. hahahaha. I am looking forward to the weekend with the girls. Sounds as though everyone will be able to make it saturday till tuesday night. A few days at the lake should be relazing and perhaps thought provoking?